Don James, Longtime Washington Huskies Football Coach, Dies at 80

Don James coached the Huskies from 1975 to 1992 and became known locally as the Dawgfather for establishing Washington as a winning machine.Credit
John Lok/The Seattle Times, via Associated Press

Don James, who as the football coach for the University of Washington for 18 seasons transformed a little-known program into a high-profile powerhouse that won four Rose Bowls and a share of the national championship, died on Sunday at his home in Kirkland, Wash. He was 80.

The cause was pancreatic cancer, the university said.

James coached the Huskies from 1975 to 1992 and became known locally as the Dawgfather for establishing Washington as a winning machine. By the time he finished coaching at Washington, he had won 10 bowl games and had a 153-58-2 record. At the time, only Bear Bryant, Joe Paterno and Bobby Bowden had won more bowl games. (James is currently tied for seventh on that list.)

His Huskies teams won the Rose Bowl in 1978, 1982, 1991 and 1992; won six conference championships; and finished in the Top 20 in the national rankings at least 11 times. In 1991, Washington went undefeated and shared the national championship with Miami. James won various coach-of-the-year honors, the first in 1977 and the last in 1991.

In 1975, James recruited a young quarterback from Southern California who had not received much attention from other big programs. The player, Warren Moon, was black; Washington had never had a starting black quarterback. James stuck with Moon amid early struggles and persistent racist heckling from home crowds. Moon became a star, leading Washington to an upset win over Michigan in the 1978 Rose Bowl, and went on to have a Hall of Fame career in the National Football League.

Washington was still a force when James resigned in protest just before the 1993 season after the football program received stiff penalties from the Pacific-10 conference for a range of violations, including excessive wages paid to players employed by boosters, free meals and poor accounting of money given to players to take recruits out to dinner. Most notably, quarterback Billy Joe Hobert, who led Washington to a share of the championship in 1991, was found to have received $50,000 in payments from a family friend.

James was not accused of improper conduct, but the program was described by James O’Fallon, the acting president of the conference, as having lost institutional control. The penalties included scholarship reduction, a two-year ban on playing in bowl games and no television appearances for one year — punishment that James and some others at the university viewed as too severe.

Photo

Warren Moon, with Don James, lead Washington to an upset win over Michigan in the 1978 Rose Bowl, and went on to have a Hall of Fame career in the National Football League.Credit
Associated Press

“I have decided I can no longer coach in a conference that treats its players and coaches so unfairly,” James wrote in his resignation letter.

There was little evidence that the scandal tainted his legacy. He was elected to the Husky Hall of Fame in 1994 and the College Football Hall of Fame in 1997. Long after he retired, he remained closely associated with the Washington football program, accompanying alumni groups on vacation tours and visiting practice every year. He addressed the team most recently in August.

James was known for being strict and meticulous and for building tough, gritty teams undaunted by the Northwest weather or by national expectations.

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Alabama Coach Nick Saban, who played under James at Kent State in the early 1970s and became one his assistants there before James was hired at Washington, said in a statement on Sunday: “From an organizational standpoint, our program today is run much like he ran his program. He was very organized, efficient, and did an outstanding job of defining expectations for players, coaches and everyone in the organization.”

Donald Earl James was born on Dec. 31, 1932, in Massillon, Ohio. He played quarterback at the University of Miami, where he set numerous passing records, and was elected to the university’s athletic hall of fame in 1992. He graduated in 1954, winning the team award for the senior with the best academic record.

He worked as an assistant at Kansas and received a master’s degree in education there in 1957. After working as an assistant at Florida State, Michigan and Colorado, he was named the head coach at Kent State in 1971. He stayed there for four seasons, being named conference coach of the year in 1972 and leading Kent State to its first appearance in a bowl game that same season. His record at Kent State was 25-19-1.

His survivors include his wife of more than 60 years, the former Carol Hoobler; three children, Jeff, Jill Woodruff and Jeni Simmons; and 10 grandchildren.

“One great year doesn’t make a tradition,” James told The New York Times before the 1992 season. “People think of Alabama, Texas, Ohio State, Michigan, Notre Dame. It would be nice to think we’re included in that. But I think we’ve got to prove we can stay up there.”

The Huskies went 9-3 that season, his last. Since then, their record is 125-122-1.

A version of this article appears in print on October 23, 2013, on Page A27 of the New York edition with the headline: Don James, 80; Built College Football Power. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe